Massai Mara

After 9 months living in Kenya I decided it was time to visit the Maassi Mara.   A group of friends were renting a car, so I jumped in at the last minute in true Hazel fashion.

The 9am pick up was obviously somewhat delayed and as I was waiting I was sent to Integri tours to pick up the tents that had been organised.  In a mix up there were in fact no tents to hire, but the boys said, “it’s not a problem, if worse comes to worst we can sleep in the car.”  Five people in a Rav 4, that was going to be a comfortable evening!

We decided to take the turn off way before Nakuru and enter the park that way.  It was certainly a funny experience, driving through bushland with no idea where we were headed, no specific track to follow and the terrain was definitely too much for our supposed 4 x 4 to handle.  After about 2 hours the bar on the bottom of the car was bent so badly it was now touching the back wheel.  So we were stuck, no tools, couldn’t bend it back… hmmm what were we going to do?

Luckily a safari vehicle came past and offered us some tools to remove this bar and we managed to fit it in the boot of the car, covering the end of the bar with someone’s shoe so it didn’t break the window.  Off we headed again.  We were trying to get into the park before it closed at 6.30pm, but got distracted when a safari guide told us to follow his car.  We arrived about 5 meters away from a young cheetah.  It was just relaxing in the sun, we couldn’t believe our luck, we weren’t even anywhere near the park gates.  And to think 10 minutes previous I had been hiding behind a bush going to the toilet!!

It was a race against time to get to the gate.  We managed to get 5 km from the entrance as the sun was setting and we stopped a park guard to ask about options for sleeping inside. Even if we did get there in time the cheapest option was about $80 per person!  So we followed to guard back to the small settlement we had just passed, where we spent the night in very reasonably priced and quite pleasant guesthouse.  (Don’t ask the name or where it was as it was dark when we arrived and dark when we left in the morning!)

The next morning we headed off early to be the first to get into the park.  Once past the gate we drove straight into a group of elephants.  We were all sat taking photos and enjoying the beautiful giants, when Mario said, “Hey guys take a photo of me.”  Before we understood what he meant he was out the car and the huge bull trumpeted aggressively and very loudly.  Mario ran back to the car as the bull started charging us…..  The bull was only about 4 meters away from the car, all of us were screaming, “drive drive drive!!!!!”  Thankfully we all got away and our car didn’t suffer any more damage.  Only from looking at the pictures later did I realise that this bull had secretions down its cheeks, which essentially means he was in the mating season with his females.  Mario you were competition to him!

After that we had to give Mario a stern talking to… “You never get out of the car in the game park!”  Mario’s response… “I thought elephants we gentle animals.” Pffhhh!

We headed to a group of cars in the distance thinking it was another animal to view.  It turned out to be the hot air ballooning group that were setting up the breakfast for the clients.  They had bottles of champagne, so naturally Fiona asked if we could have one of the bottles.  As it turned out they said yes and gave us a whole unopened bottle.  So 7am and already drinking champers! Hahahaha.

We found another group of cars and asked them what they were looking at, they said lions and we kept looking way into the distance only to realise we were less than 10 meters away from them.  They were in the long grass in front of us.  One male and his female.  Behind us came a small migration of wildebeest and zebras, naturally this got the lions’ attention, they stood up had a parousal and then the male decided the sight of all the food had made him horny.  So we watched lion sex, which was short to say the least!

Now only 9.30am we bumped into another hot air ballooning group who were packing up.  I could see a whole unopened bottle of champagne, so Fiona and I decided to talk to the pilot.  It turned out he was a Yorkshire man and was very happy to give the bottle to us.  The boys were back in the car and looking agitated so we were forced to get back in the car and keep moving, however Fiona and I believe if we had kept talking for long enough we may have even blagged a free ballooning ride from him.  We will never know.

So 2 bottles of free champagne blagged and drunk before 10am.  Not a bad morning really.

In the afternoon we also saw hyenas, hippos, baboons, monkeys warthogs, tons of giraffes, more elephants, (but this time we kept our distance,) ostriches, gazelle and maybe even a rhino in the distance, although the latter I doubt!

We left the game park around 4pm and headed back to Kisumu.  Gugi, Fiona and I acted like the little children in the back, drawing on each other and generally annoying the boys in the front.  The owner of the car called us and demanded the car back that night, or he was going to charge more money.  So that meant we had to fix the car on the route home.  By now the bar at the back of the car was also so bent we couldn’t even open the boot!  So as we found a mechanic to put the side bar back on, the boys fixed the back bar and the girls went on the beer run.

I started to drive back in the dark and it was actually pretty scary.  Certainly after Kerricho my eyes started to get tired.  There were no lines marking the side of the road and drivers not understanding the rule about no full beams in oncoming traffic proved to make the journey less than enjoyable.  The road from Kerricho was on tarmac, off tarmac, with only large coaches and lorries as oncoming traffic.  I didn’t even recognise arriving at Ahero, the first thing I recognised was Mega City in Kisumu!!!  I was happy we got back in one piece!

Maassi Mara 2 days, one night!  You may think we were crazy but a damn good road trip! :)  Thanks Gugi, Mario, Ivan and Fiona!

Hiking Monkey Rock

“Hazel do you want to come on a hike to Monkey Rock?  It’s just a short stroll, maybe half an hour, and then we can have a picnic on the top.”

This was how it began…

It was lucky the weekend before we all cancelled due to lack of sleep and too much alcohol consumption the night before.

The 11am pick up to start the hike turned into a 12.30pm pick up, in true African style.  There were 7 of us in total.  Soon it became clear than in fact a half hour walk was going to be more like a 5 hour walk and was actually the tallest mountain surrounding Kisumu that I see beautiful sun rises from my bedroom window.

We arrived at a sugar plantation farm and it was decided that we needed a guide.   

So we set off in midday sun thinking, “it’s not that far, it won’t be too hard a hike.”  After the first half an hour walk through high sugar cane fields, it was clear it was going to be a long walk.  My poor friend Jay having only had 4 hours sleep and a few drinks the night before was already looking like he had just had a shower.  “No you guys go ahead; I’ll just wait for you here.”  We did not let this happen.

It was hot but the climb was good, not just a boring path to follow but clambering over rocks and plenty of lush vegetation to push past, not to mention the evil thorn bushes.  Even from near the bottom of the hill the views over the sugar plantations and back towards Kisumu and Lake Victoria were impressive.  It was one of those days where the haze never lifted and gave the feeling of a serene aura. 

As we walked into the first valley we started to see the rural communities and the traditional housing.  Small groups of cattle were grazing and chickens running around followed by their noisy chicks, which are the necessary for these small farming communities to survive.  The rocks covered in colourful clothes and bedding, drying in the afternoon sun.

Our guide was quite an old man and I am unsure as to how well he knew the way.  As we carefully crossed a field of corn it became clear he was in fact being directed by the small children from the local communities.  Naturally these children began to follow us. 

At the bottom of the Monkey Rock there was a cave, where it was said cow sacrifice happened.  However we all discussed that it would be hard to get a cow inside in the first place.  African guides do like to make up creative stories.

Finally after a 3 hour climb we had reached the top of Monkey Rock.  There was a local family relaxing, enjoying the Sunday afternoon.  As usual we were a source of entertainment for them and they thought all of us came from London, even though none of us did!  We squeezed through the rock out onto a ledge.  The view was unbelievable, the best from the hills around Kisumu I have seen yet.  I had no idea just how flat the land was and how much sugar cane was being farmed in the area surrounding Kisumu.  The plantations seemed to go on forever.

The drop from the ledge was pretty big, so we laid down to look over the edge.  Luckily we did spot one monkey, way way below.  So the name of the rock was not in vain.

The climb back down definitely made us realise how tired our legs were.  Naturally I was the one to fall over and take a chunk out of the palm of my hand and replace it with the cow dung I had landed on.  There was a small sense of urgency to get back to the car, as the sun was setting.  On the equator the sun sets very fast, you have about half an hour at most from light to dark.  I did not want to be on that mountain in dark and none of us had brought more clothes or more water.  The colours on the mountain and the sugar cane fields were brilliant for my photography as the sun went down.  We all managed to arrive back to the car at 7pm just as the sun disappeared.

Half an hour hike was in fact 6 hours…… 

Advice for other hikers about Monkey Rock…

1.       Set of early, maybe 8am.

2.       Take at least 1.5L water per person.

3.       Wear long trousers to avoid thorns.

4.       Definitely get a guide.

5.       Most importantly take a camera for the spectacular views.